Moto G Review: First look hands-on

Motorola is making its big comeback in the affordable smartphone segment with the Moto G. We go hands-on with the newbie

Tech enthusiasts the world over had been long waiting for Motorola to pick up the pieces and come back into the smartphone arena with a bang. And the tech giant did just that - first with the Moto X and then with the Moto G, hoping to grab chunks of the smartphone pie across price segments. So, how good really is the Moto G - is it enticingly affordable and delightfully functional at the same time? KYMI finds out.

Build and Design

In the days of curved edges and unibody forms, the Moto G follows somewhat the same pattern and yet comes off standing out and looking good. As the tech gurus over at KYM found, the phone boasts of a 'neatly contoured and curved back panel'. The handset is light and even though it's not the thinnest phone out there, it sits comfortably in the hand and is easy to handle and use.

Not only do the many colours of its casing give the Moto G a young, fun vibe, users can also choose from covers that come with a grip texture and integrated flip-cover. Those who like a sturdier feel can even go in for the 'bumper' type casings that give the handset chunkier, ridged buttons and even wrap around it to cover the edges of the display. Build quality of both the phone and its many casings is certainly worth writing home about.

On the downside, the power and volume keys look and feel slightly plasticky and even rattle a bit when used. The black panel of the phone is a fingerprint magnet and the lighter yellow casing shows up scratches pretty quickly.

Display

The Moto G's 4.5-inch display, armed with its 1280 x 720 pixel resolution and its 329ppi pixel density, offers up excellent contrasts and black depth and even though it is a TFT screen, it could easily pass off as a Super AMOLED one. The phone boasts of bright, vivid colours and fairly wide viewing angles - we specially like the fact that its bezels are slim too.

Processor, Performance and Software

Those who prefer stock Android builds on their phones will enjoy using the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean / 4.4 KitKat software on the Moto G. Not only is the operating system smooth, the only other additions is comes with include Motorola Assist, Moto Care and Motorola Migrate - all of which are functional and non intrusive as well.

With Assist, users can quickly and conveniently set up chosen phone behaviours for certain events or times of day - like putting the phone in silent mode during one's bed time hours or setting up auto replies when one is in meetings. Motorola Care and Migrate take care of all of one's device support and contact transfer needs respectively.

Although screen transitions and animations are smooth most of the time, the Moto G does have the occasional lag - but nothing you don't see even on other higher-ended handsets. All in all, the phone's quad-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset, along with its Adreno 305 GPU and a 1 GB RAM serve it well, making it pretty quick and efficient, specially at its price point.

Camera

Motorola has given the Moto G a minimalist camera UI - and it works well. When you are about to capture an image, all you see on the display is your subject - with no distractions. However, if you need to tinker with the settings, you can easily access them with a swipe from the left. The gallery comes up with a swipe from the right.

All one needs to do to click an image is tap the display, but don't worry, you can always drag the focus around before capturing your subject - all it takes is tweaking the settings a bit. Conveniences aside, the phone's camera does have its drawbacks; as expected, the 5-megapixel sensor does capture a fair amount of noise along with its images.

Price, Connectivity, Battery and Storage

The Moto G lacks 4G connectivity but boasts of working well on HSDPA 3G, Bluetooth 4.0, MicroUSB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Hot Spot and GPS. The phone's 2,070 mAh battery is pretty decent for its price point - we just wish it was removable.

The Moto G comes with either 8 GB or 16 GB of storage and even though it doesn't sport a microSD card slot for external memory expansion, it is a great deal for Rs. 12,499 and Rs. 13,999 respectively.